The Greatest Loss
by QuiteTheDevil
Summary: When the people you have put your trust into take form of your enemy, what will you do? I'll tell you, Ozpin. You'll regret the day you ever crossed me, and you'll look me in the eyes while I rip you apart yet again. And I'll keep ripping you apart. Over and over and over and over again, until you finally collapse and admit your defeat. Trust me, that day will come very soon.
1. Arriving with a problem

_Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside of us while we live. Most people will relate to such a statement. Others are yet to experience their greatest loss. Their greatest defeat._

The sight of Atlas was a relieving one. A sight for sore eyes. It was time to move into a new chapter of their mission, and for others, a new chapter of their life entirely. Blake sat weakly against the inner wall of the ship, looking down in deep silence, her yellow eyes still slightly red after… letting tears fall. She was glad that it was all over and that they had finally arrived to their destination, but it was still difficult to believe that she had put him down for good. Sure, he was after her head looking to slam it into the blade of his sword, but there was still some sort of friend in him that she grieved after. She grieved after the past him, perhaps.

Yang's lavender eyes glanced down at the black-haired faunus, as if about to try and ask her a question, but perhaps this wasn't the time. Maybe when they're left with a bit more privacy. She had to know more about Adam.

Weiss' nervousness wasn't exactly easy to spot, but it was there. What will she do when her family finds out that she's back in Atlas? What will Winter think of her? What will the entirety of Atlas think of her? It was all she could think about as they neared the huge city more and more. The other ships around their little ship didn't put her at ease either.

Ruby was looking at the city with her big, silver eyes in admiration. She had heard stories of the city's beauty, but… this was breathtaking. She looked down at her uncle silently, not saying anything as she eyed him, turning around afterwards and looking at all the other passengers that were currently present in the vessel with her. Weiss, Blake, Yang, Jaune, Nora, Ren, Qrow, Oscar, Maria… they were all in this together, but it's evident that the journey so far has been nothing short of incredibly exhausting. They really needed to rest soon.

"Weiss?" Ruby rested her hand on Weiss' shoulder, looking at her with a faint smile. "Uhm… Would your family mind us… uhh, sleeping over at your place just for one night?" She asked, raising an eyebrow very slightly as she looked at the blue-eyed girl. Fuck. The former heiress of the vastly influential Schnee Dust Company held her breath when she heard the question, her eyes widening lightly as she did so. This… was going to be difficult to explain.

"Ruby, I…"

The others looked at her, the tension already rising as they waited for an answer. This… could be problematic.

"I'm… not really an heiress anymore…" Weiss looked down and held her arm nervously as she answered Ruby's question with a distinct shaky tone of voice, as Yang stood up behind the white-haired young woman, unable to really… comprehend that.

"What?" Yang was visibly getting furious, clenching her hand into a fist.

"I-I said, I'm not an heiress anymore!" Weiss turned around to face Yang, almost aggressively. "How do you think I got here? They sure didn't let me!" Weiss yelled out, meanwhile Yang stepped forward gritting her teeth, her lavender eyes now crimson in color. Suddenly, Qrow got up and stepped between the two girls keeping them apart from each other.

"Ey, why don't we calm down right this instant?" He responded to both of their actions, as his valentine-red eyes glanced at Yang, to which she responded with a rather aggressive growl. "You couldn't have told us this sooner, Princess?" Qrow's eyes switched over to Weiss as she looked away, crossing her arms. "I thought it was obvious." She simply retorted while Qrow rolled his eyes at her answer. "It's not too difficult to find a simple hotel in Atlas, I'm sure of it." He told the two as Yang huffed and sat back down on the floor of the ship with a loud thud, her lavender eyes looking up at Weiss with a combative, yet ashamed demeanor. Ruby silently watched the exchange with slight worry.

"Well, that's true…" Weiss nodded, before she looked up at Qrow again. "…but what will be difficult is getting around in the city with what's basically a criminal with you." She spoke, meanwhile Ruby hummed as she began thinking, looking at Weiss. Qrow certainly took note of this, figuring she probably had an idea.

"Weiss." Ruby called out.

"What is it, Ru-…" Weiss faced Ruby, before realizing, seeing Ruby taking her own cape off.

"C'mere." Ruby snickered as she walked towards Weiss with intent to make Weiss wear the said cape, meanwhile a mad blush covered Weiss' face.

* * *

**Meanwhile, somewhere else…**

A seemingly lifeless body floated down a river, a red sword floating next to it as the river carried them softly. Adam.

Soon enough, the body would find itself ashore, laying there motionless and pale as the sword laid next to it. The sheath for the sword seems to be lost, though. Footsteps could be heard approaching the body, as two individuals walked towards the almost lifeless Adam.

"Why would she need this worthless pile of garbage?" One of the two figures asked. It had gunmetal hair, along with familiar robotic legs. Mercury. Next to him? Of course. Emerald.

"I dunno, she probably wants to finish the job herself. I just hate that we have to carry him." She sighed, looking at Mercury, before looking back down at Adam, noticing his eyes slightly fluttering. Just what was Salem going to do to this poor guy?

"Ugh." Mercury rolled his eyes, slowly picking Adam's motionless body off the ground, carrying it on his shoulder. For someone who preferred to use their legs as a means to fight, he had a strong upper body. Emerald looked at the sword that laid amidst the sand with curiosity, before shrugging, picking it up and taking it with her. Might as well keep it as a trophy of sorts.

As the two arrived at Salem's… castle of sorts with Adam's body and sword in tow, they approached the door of where Salem silently sat at a big table with the rest of her accomplices, her soulless eyes watching the door, waiting for them to come through. They slowly opened the door, Mercury groaning as he did so. "We've got the bastard right here. I think he's probably dead already." He heavily breathed as Emerald looked at Salem, meanwhile Salem's frown grew.

"What do we do now, your grace?" Emerald nervously asked, as Salem glanced at Hazel, receiving a silent nod from him in return, before getting up. "Would rather remain silent if I was you, Emerald my dear." Salem looked at the dark-skinned girl with malicious eyes, meanwhile Hazel picked Adam's 'corpse' up and carried it out of the chamber as Emerald shut her mouth. "I'll show you what will happen if you let me down so heavily, if you're so curious." Salem added in as Tyrian weakly tried to hold back his giggles, looking at Emerald and Mercury. "She… She's so unnerved, your grace!" He laughed at Emerald, twitching violently, meanwhile Salem looked at Emerald with her unnatural eyes, subtly smirking as she did so. Chills went up Emerald's spine as she caught glimpse of the smirk and looked at Mercury, who seemed uneasy, but more calm than Emerald.

Whatever Salem was going to do with Adam, it won't be pleasing to look at, that's for sure.

**Well, hello there. I'd like to say a few things right now. First off, shoutout to Dishwasher1910 for the artwork this fanfiction has, and also basically for the idea of Grimmified Team RWBY. His artwork really inspired me and I decided to start this thing as a result of it. Go check out his artwork, it's wild. However, the story I have planned is entirely my idea, with a few recommendations by other here and there, so I don't think I'm exactly… ripping them off in any sort of way. Anyhow, thank you for reading, I hope you've enjoyed what you have read so far, criticism is welcome, and once again, shoutout to Dishwasher1910. I'll see you in the next chapter. Also, this is just basically a what-if scenario. I doubt this is how volume 7 will turn out.**


	2. Birth of a new bull

"Well, we managed to get by somehow." Ruby whispered silently as she and the gang walked down one of the many streets that Atlas consisted of. It was such a huge city to Ruby and others, while for Weiss, it was rather usual. She then looked over at Weiss, stifling a laugh as she watched the oh-so-royal heiress do her best to cover her face with Ruby's crimson cape. Yang looked at Weiss in silence, scanning her faintly, knowing damn well what Ruby was trying not to laugh at.

Weiss peeked up to look at one of the many buildings, gasping softly as she noted the flashing neon sign the building had attached to its exterior. She didn't care for the name, the only thing that mattered was that the sign had '_HOTEL_' on it. "Here." She turned to the others, as they glanced at the door.

"Ice Queen." Qrow called the white-wearing girl out, to which she replied by looking at him, letting out a small 'huh?' as she did so.

"Give me that wallet of yours." He bluntly ordered, earning a surprised glare from her.

"Uhm, excuse me?" She raised an eyebrow, almost feeling offended by his words. Mostly surprised, though. Qrow groaned in frustration, leaning back slightly whilst rolling his eyes.

"Do you really think no one will recognize your voice?" He added in, before clearing his throat.

"It'd be much safer if I paid instead of you now, wouldn't it?" He leaned in slightly, grinning subtly with alcohol tainting his breath as he spoke to Weiss with a quiet tone, to which she responded by leaning back and making a grimace while she waved her hand as if to get his breath away from her.

"You're disgusting." She stated as she pulled her wallet out, which was bound with quite cute blueish-white leather. She handed him the wallet in silence, disgusted by him rather easily, meanwhile Ruby could be seen trying her best to not burst out laughing.

"Thank you for your cooperation." He snarkily said to her, giving her a bit more space, before he opened the wallet and took a peek in it, letting out a loud whistle as he saw the amount of money she had with her. "Your monthly allowance literally trumps the amount of money I have on my credit card, princess." He commented as a loud giggle could be heard from Ruby and Yang, though the just rolled their eyes at his comment.

"Come on already!" Everyone yelled out in unison except for Ruby and Yang, including Weiss, which made Qrow flinch as he glanced around, noting the people giving them weird looks while they walked past by them.

"Okay, okay! Always fun and joy with you all…" He whispered the last part, his eyes darting up towards the sky. It was slowly getting dark, and he could see the sun setting slightly. Maybe they were right, huh.

As they walked into the hotel with Ruby making sure Weiss' face is well-covered, they looked around, taking note of the people that glanced at them. They had the right to, such a big crew stepping into a hotel was a bit suspicious, no doubt. Qrow idly trudged towards the check-in counter, letting out a low whistle as he took note of the rather stunning lady that worked there.

"Why hello there, angel." He leaned onto the counter as he looked the receptionist lady right in the eyes, making the gang all groan in frustration and roll their eyes, even Ruby and Yang as well.

"Erm… how can I help you?" She prayed that this guy would not beat around the bush as she looked at him with already annoyed eyes.

"Room for ten." He pulled out Weiss' credit card carelessly out of her wallet, which Weiss clearly didn't like, seeing as she was gritting her teeth behind Qrow.

"Uhm, there's no room for ten, sir." The receptionist looked at Qrow with a weirded-out look, his eyes widening slightly when he realized what he said.

A really awkward silence ensued, lasting for about 5 seconds as Qrow looked at the receptionist and vice versa. Meanwhile, Ren let out a sigh as Nora just stood there idly. Jaune was facepalming at Qrow's mistake, though.

"…unless… you want two rooms for four people and one room for two...?" The receptionist cut through the silence, tilting her head slightly with a very awkward smile while Qrow's small blush grew.

"Er, yeah, that, whatever." He shook his head, handing the receptionist the credit card for a small moment, before his eyes darted to the credit card. Oh sweet lord. On the credit card was the Schnee Dust Company logo, along with letters clearly indicating the owner of the credit card. '_WEISS SCHNEE'_

A bead of sweat slowly went down Qrow's forehead as he internally prayed that the receptionist wouldn't notice.

No, the receptionist didn't notice. She was too weirded out by the situation she was in. A person with 9 people behind him drunkly asks for a room for ten people? Wha?...

_'beep!'_ went the credit card terminal as the receptionist swiped the card near the device, before she gently returned the card to the 'owner', giving a shy nod. Thank god Weiss' credit card wasn't declined this time. Then she turned around, looking at the shelf of keys she had behind her, before grabbing three of them, handing them to the drunk old crow. "Room 896, 898 and 899." She told Qrow, before leaning back slightly.

Qrow lazily looked at the keys and the card, before stuffing the card back inside the white… and girly wallet he had with him rather roughly, closing the wallet as the keys dangled off of his index finger. "Come on, everyone." He commanded as he began walking to the elevator of the hotel, the group following silently behind him as Oscar looked at the lady behind the counter for a second, before continuing to follow the group.

Qrow entered the elevator first, with Oscar and Maria following him into it. And that's when things began getting a bit… uhh, tight. Team JNR entered afterwards, with slight difficulties when trying to fit into the elevator, but nothing major. Team RWBY stared at the elevator for a few seconds, before Yang inhaled deeply. She then pushed Jaune as she made her way into the elevator, as Jaune let out a grunt when he was pushed against the wall by her. He couldn't deny, Yang was a pretty strong girl, both physically and mentally. Then Blake tried to enter, trying to squeeze by everyone to the basically what was the last fraction of space left in the elevator. When she succeeded by rustily squeezing between Ren and Nora, she let out a sigh of relief, before her eyes shot wide open. Shit. There's still Weiss and Ruby left. Ruby gulped loudly, before pushing against Qrow, unaware that she was pressing Oscar against the wall of the elevator. "Sorry!" She squeaked as she barely fit into the bloody thing. And then there was Weiss.

She had an unnaturally menacing glint in her eyes as she looked at everyone that was in the elevator. She took a quick peek behind her to see if anyone was staring at them. Nope. Perfect. She cleared her throat, before silently tapping the tip of her Myrtenaster against the floor, her semblance activating as one of her magical circles silently formed underneath the group that was in the elevator. Suddenly, all of the people in the elevator got forced against the walls of the elevator, making a clearing in the middle as everyone let out a gasp at the sudden force that pushed them against the wall.

Weiss slowly entered the elevator and stood in the middle while humming a tune to herself, pushing a button on the elevator before the elevator doors closed, and the elevator slowly rose upwards towards the desired floor. Floor 8.

"You're a real pain in the rear sometimes, young lady." Maria angrily commented as she was pinned against the wall by the semblance, to which Weiss paid no attention, continuing to hum playfully to herself.

Soon enough, when the elevator arrived to floor 8, Weiss holstered her Myrtenaster, the magic circle disappearing beneath her as she did so. When the doors opened, she stepped out, right as everyone fell onto the floor of the elevator, groaning lightly in pain. Thankfully, no one was in the hallway at the time.

"Well, here we are." She proudly nodded, before turning to look at the lovely bunch that laid on the floor, all in a pile. How lovely. "Uhm, you'll catch a cold if you sleep there." She pointed out, arching her back slightly and leaning towards the group gently, a subtle smirk on her face as the group barely managed to get up.

The group however, wasn't really laughing at her jokes. "Very funny, Weiss." Ruby groaned as she walked past Weiss, meanwhile the others gave Weiss cold stares. "Wow, totally made me laugh." Yang rolled her eyes. "My back hurts…" Oscar groaned.

Weiss looked at them all and huffed, crossing her arms. As Qrow walked past her, he idly tossed her the white wallet she had. She caught it very clumsily, holding it shakily with both hands before she shot a glare at the drunk man. "Hey! This wallet wasn't really inexpensive, y'know!" She hissed, though to no reply. She sighed and shook her head, walking after the group with her eyes closed and her arms crossed.

Qrow nonchalantly spun the three keys he had with him on his index finger while the group scanned the numbers of the doors they were passing by, looking for the three numbers the receptionist told them. "Remember, everyone. We're not here to check out Ice Queen's little palace, and we're especially not here to stay for long. I don't want us becoming targets, so you'll all be very careful to who you talk to, and don't you dare mention Ice Queen to anyone." His raspy voice explained as they walked, though not too loudly. God forbid someone heard this right now.

"Uncle Qrow, is it 896?" Ruby asked as she looked at one door in particular with the same numbers that she had just recited.

"Yeah. Right, now, let's figure out who's gonna be in which room with who." Qrow asked as the crew gathered together.

"Uhh… how about team RWBY in one room…" Oscar pointed at one of the doors. "Jaune, Ren, Nora and I in the other…" Oscar pointed at another door.

"And-" Oscar cut himself off as he looked at Qrow, who was already rather not too pleased with Oscar's choice of rooms. "Uhh… you and Maria… in _that_ one?..." The boy pointed at the door behind Qrow.

No one else seemed to really notice Qrow's unamused look as Oscar told everyone who's gonna be everyone. In fact, they all seemed to agree.

"Yeah, sure."

"Why not."

"That's something I can get down with."

"I will say yes to that."

"Uh, right. Sounds good."

"Ooh, sounds awesome!"

"A good proposition."

Only Qrow and Maria were silent. _Ugh._ If it's a king size bed, even worse.

"Alright, alright, but you kiddos better not try to do something weird tonight." Qrow sighed, handing Ruby one key, Jaune another key, and keeping the last key for himself. "If you ever need each other for any reason tonight, tough luck. We're gonna have our doors locked." Qrow spoke, before unlocking the door of his and Maria's room, cursing something out under his breath.

When everyone was finally in their room, everything became much more calm. Everyone was so tired.

* * *

As Ren and Nora each laid in their respective beds, Jaune and Oscar stayed up, silent and deep in thought. Oscar looked at Jaune, before looking at Ren and Nora, finally noticing something... _odd._

"You… say that you three are a team, right?" Oscar asked Jaune, his tone gentle when the blonde boy looked at Oscar in return, curious as to where he was going with this.

"Well, yeah. We all met at Beacon and we've been a team even after… even after Beacon fell." Jaune sighed, looking down for a second. "Why do you ask, Oscar?" He questioned the young man, tilting his head slightly, before his eyes darted at his armor and Crocea Mors that were resting on the nightstand.

"If… you need 4 people to be considered a team at Beacon…" Oscar spoke as Jaune realized what he wanted to know more about. "Where… where's your fourth teammate?" Oscar asked, looking at Jaune's baby-blue eyes with curiousness.

But then Oscar realized immediately afterwards, when Jaune looked down, seemingly saddened.

"I-I'm sorr-"

"She died heroically in a battle against… against…" Jaune clenched his hand into a fist. "Against _C-Cinder_." Jaune stuttered out shakily, letting out a raspy sigh.

There was a moment of silence between the two, before Oscar smiled. "She… she must be proud of you for having such courage to go on a quest like this, Jaune." Oscar spoke, nodding softly, to which Jaune only reacted by looking at him with a small glint of hope in his eyes. "I'm sure of it. She… seems to have meant so much to you." Oscar kept talking, his words causing Jaune to crack a small smile.

"I'm… only doing what she has always done." He replied, his smile now a bit more… proud. "I'm protecting the ones I love with everything I have." Jaune added in, looking out the window, noting the nighttime that has approached the city.

"Can… can I get to know such a hero's name?..." Oscar asked, happy that he was able to help Jaune feel a bit better somehow.

"Pyrrha."

"…"

"Pyrrha Nikos."

* * *

As team RWBY was preparing to go to sleep, Yang noticed Blake staring out of the window and into the deep night that had been bestowed upon the big city, as if in some sort of trance. She glanced at Ruby and Weiss, who were basically having a small pillow fight. Except it was only Ruby slapping Weiss in the face with a pillow and Weiss telling Ruby to stop. Yang silently approached Blake and looked out the window with her rather emptily, before glancing at Blake slowly.

"What was he like before… before the change?" Yang wanted to know, and Blake immediately knew to who the blonde referred to.

"He was… incredibly kind, actually. He always did what seemed to benefit the White Fang the most, even if it… had to spill the blood of others." Blake answered with a soft tone in her voice, meanwhile Yang was silent, continuing to stare out of the window, imagining what that could've looked like.

"But… it wasn't what the White Fang was meant to be about. What the faunus were was being tarnished by his actions, and everyone seemed to think of us as killers." Blake continued on, looking at Yang afterwards.

"We only wanted equality, not power over humans."

Yang looked at Blake in response to Blake turning her head to Yang, swallowing softly, idly tapping her metallic fingers against the window.

"After you left him is… when he basically became crazy, isn't it?" Yang raised an eyebrow, slightly curious to know more.

"Well… not really. He didn't begin looking for us until we basically shattered the White Fang, from what I could tell…" Blake uttered, her yellow eyes not leaving Yang's lavender ones.

"So… at Beacon…" Yang's eyes sparked slightly at the realization.

"We were never his intended targets, Yang." Blake confirmed Yang's suspicious both with her words and a slight nod. "He just thought of me as a nice bonus to also take care off at that time. That is… until we basically shut down the White Fang and he lost everything that he was building towards. I'm pretty sure that's when it… really snapped in him." Blake explained carefully, meanwhile Yang remained silent, looking out the window. Even if the man was just that _horrid_, Yang couldn't… really blame him for his mind snapping in half when he basically got to see everything that he was building up to fall before him.

"Yang…" Blake placed her hand on Yang's shoulder, cutting Yang's thoughts off and getting her attention.

"I promise that I won't leave any of you ever again. I make that promise with _all_ of my heart. I truly do."

Yang remained silent, before nodding slightly and cracking a subtle smile at Blake.

"Now that I've truly left the past behind me, there's… no real reason for me to do so, anyway, heh." Blake let out a small laugh, causing Yang's smile to further widen just a tiny bit.

Suddenly, Ruby's voice broke the small amount of silence that was present in the room, as she looked at her team members.

"Alright, team! We've got a lot to do tomorrow, so let's get some rest, because… well, because we'll need it!" The little red leader ordered oh-so-strictly, earning a small chuckle from Yang as Weiss simply rolled her eyes, meanwhile Blake simply nodded.

"Why good on you for using your brain, leader! And thanks for ruining my pillow, dolt!" Weiss hissed at Ruby, stealing the pillow Ruby had in her own hands, causing Ruby to roll all over the bed in a fit of laughter.

"Seriously, people. Ruby is right. We better get to sleeping right about now." Yang sighed, still smiling lightly as she sat down on her own bed, looking at her little silver-eyed sister.

* * *

A sudden jolt of electricity went through Adam as he suddenly sprung awake, gasping for air and coughing out water harshly, meanwhile Hazel took his huge hand off of Adam's chest. Adam hissed afterwards mid-cough when felt the wounds he had suffered previously from his last encounter with Yang and Blake.

"W-where am I?!" Adam yelled out as he looked around himself, noting the dark chamber he was in, meanwhile Hazel took out the yellow dust crystal he had injected into his own arm and looked down at Adam.

"I'd remain silent if I were you." Hazel simply replied, as the door behind Adam opened, and Adam looked behind him, his eyes widening slightly when he realized who stood there.

Hazel simply picked up Adam off the floor with relative ease, carrying him by the neck towards Salem as she stood on the cliff of her black castle, her eyes narrowing at Adam as he was being carried.

Adam let out a few weak coughs as he was let go in front of Salem, shakily standing on his legs before his eyes met Salem's, making his nervousness go from 0 to 100 real fast.

"Why am I here?..." Adam barely managed to breath out, before suddenly getting gripped hard by the throat by Salem, who lifted him off the ground with even more ease. _Holy shit was this woman strong._

"Adam Taurus…" Salem hissed, turning around while still holding him up in front of her, making him hover over a huge fall. His eyes could barely make out the countless grimm beneath him wanting to tear him into pieces, some of them even trying to climb over each other in a desperate manner to reach him. On top of that, he couldn't breathe, since this woman had such a strong grip on his throat, he could feel her nails slowly digging into it. Sheesh.

"You appear to have failed me yet again… you know I don't tolerate you failing me multiple times. You know one failure is as far as I'll go with my forgiveness." She eyed him as her voice rang out, a menacing tone present in it. Adam's eyes darted up to notice Emerald practically hiding behind Hazel as she watched the event unfold before her in incredible nervousness.

"Now I appear to have no use for you, since you're so incompetent in what you do. It appears you're only good for one thing. _Animal food_." Salem shook her head, stepping forward slightly to make him hover further away from the cliff she stood on the edge of.

So this was how it was gonna end, huh.

As Salem was about to let the poor man fall into the endless pit of grimm that have piled up beneath him, her eye darted to the nearby pool of black, noxious liquid she always used to summon her grimm, which was located next to all the grimm that had gathered to rip Adam apart. She… appeared to be deep in thought for a moment.

She had never tried tossing an alive human in such a pool… what would such an action result in? She was curious to say at the least.

Adam could barely shake his head as she didn't simply let him go, but tossed him towards that said pool instead, watching carefully.

"NOOOOOOO!" Was the last thing Adam could scream out before his body splashed into the black pool, completely consumed by the black liquid.

Muffled, agonizing screams could be heard from the pool as the pool bubbled violently and the grimm gathered around the pool slowly, as if curious themselves. Salem jumped down off the cliff, gracefully landing on both of her heels with incredible ease, walking towards the pool afterwards slowly while the other grimm recoiled lightly to give her space.

She watched carefully as the pool bubbled, before the screams and the bubbling suddenly stopped, making her raise an eyebrow. _Interesting._

Suddenly, someone started rising out of the pool.

Someone with long, devil-like horns protruding out of the top-sides of their head, who had crimson hair that reached to their neck in length. It… he had a black-red mouthpiece with red little horns sticking out of certain sections of it, along with this two-eyed mask that covered one of his eyes, making it look like that he had 2 eyes on one side of his nose and 1 eye on the other side. Speaking of the eyes, they were like Salem's, with black sclera and glowing red pupils, which looked threatening as all hell.

He didn't have anything on his upper body, unless you count the armor on his right arm, which consisted of a red shoulder guard that had a red metal bull head on it, along with big black horns on it, complete with a rather large black ring going through the nose of said bull head, the red forearm guard and a red plate that covered the back of their hand. Underneath the armor there was black straps that covered the entirety of the… thing's arm, along with a bit of collarbone and neck. Their chest was white and pale, bearing two specific grey scars. Their... upper body was also rather impressive to look at, even Salem had to admit.

On their lower part of their body, it seemed as if the upper part of a black gown was cut off and wrapped around the waist, leaving with only the lower part that covered the legs. Holding the lower part of said gown was a sort of grey… fur-belt, that had a small metallic silver bull head on it to serve as the buckle. It was wrapped around the waist, however, not so much the hips. The bull head had red-black eyes of its own, too. Another thing was that over the said 'belt', a red chain was wrapped around it, meanwhile one part of the chain was hanging slightly loose on one of the sides of the person's hips. The black boots could barely be seen under the attire the person had, but they were there.

Salem carefully observed the person, before they slowly started walking on the black liquid, slowly approaching her. "Adam… _Taurus…_" Salem voiced softly, causing the person to stop in response in front of her.

Oh, she could do something with this.

"I'd… take it that you still wish for vengeance upon those who wronged you, correct?" Salem asked, slowly approaching the reborn man and placing her hand on his chest slightly, looking up at him very slowly with a subtle smirk.

"Yes, your majesty." The new Adam replied with a noticeable amount of… difference in his voice. It had so much more of a sinister presence to it now. Lovely.

"I see…" Salem hummed with unusual satisfaction, thinking.

She was always killing those who helped Ozpin, but… now, since Ozpin was closer than ever to actually having a chance against her, it'd be so much sweeter to turn his admittedly strong allies to _her_ side…

"I shall give you permission to have your revenge, my dear…" She smirked even more, before tapping his chest with her index finger two times.

"Under a few conditions, of course."

"I'm listening, your grace."

"First… I know whoever it is that you're so hellbent on killing is part of Ruby Rose's team. I'd ask of you to _not_ kill them when you finally do reach them." She spoke, such words making smoke blow out from Adam's mouthpiece through the tiny holes it had. He wasn't too pleased with such a request.

"I know, I know, but be a good boy, and I promise you'll get the sweetest of revenges you could ever ask for. I'll let you… torture them in whatever way you wish for a little bit when you bring them here, make them feel pain they've _never_ even thought of before…" Salem slowly walked around Adam, speaking with such bloodlust and satisfaction. And Adam listened intently.

"After that… you'll hand them over to me, and she'll finally be with you once more… as she always should've been." She whispered softly, looking Adam in the eyes as she did so.

"If that doesn't satisfy your needs, then I'm afraid I'll just have to kill you right here, right now, dear." She shook her head, before waiting on Adam's answer.

"Your wish is my command, your grace." Adam nodded slightly as black fumes gently emanated from his mouthpiece, Salem's smirk widening further when she heard his answer.

"Mmm, very well, then. Glad we could settle down on an agreement." Salem hummed lightly.

Meanwhile, Emerald was watching from the cliff in utter horror, unable to believe what had just happened before her eyes. _Was Salem… going to do this to the rest of them as well?_

"Emerald, my dear?" Emerald was snapped out of the trance when she heard Salem call out to her from below.

"Y-Yes, your grace?" Emerald nervously answered, her hands shaking slightly.

"Bring Adam his trusty little weapon. He'll… be paying our _friends_ a little visit soon…" Salem turned to look at Adam again, so proud of her wonderful creation.

_What an unexpected change of plans… but a rather welcome one, indeed._

**Well, there's the second chapter. If you're unsure of how Adam's supposed to look, do look up Dishwasher1910's artwork, there's one artwork of him in grimm form which inspired the look of grimm Adam here. Other than that, I think I'll be uploading chapters every Monday from here on out. Also, reviews and such are always welcome, no matter if it's criticism or you guys and gals showing love for this story, so yeah. Anyhow, see you next chapter, have a wonderful rest of your day or night.**


	3. Let Her Be!

**Warning: There's mild gore coming up in this chapter. If you're uncomfortable reading such stuff, I'd recommend skipping reading the nightmare segment in entirety. If you're fine with it, ignore this message. Have a good day, thank you for your time.**

* * *

_Blake's vision was so blurry as she looked around herself while her eyes to the… different environment she was in. As her vision sharpened, she gasped when she realized where she was. A grey room. A grey, small room that had a singular door leading into it, the said door being worn-out and rusty, though there was a window on that very door._

_As Blake tried to get up and walk towards the said door, she heard the rattle of chains and felt the inability to do so, looking down and gasping sharply and loudly when she saw chains stuck into her forearms and the back of her legs. They weren't wrapped around her, no, they were actually inserted into her, protruding out of her limbs and into a wall._

_After a few seconds, she tugged again, feeling a sharp pain run through her body when she did so, letting out a wince of pain as Blake realized she was permanently attached to this wall somehow. Even if she wanted to tug on the chains as hard as she could, the best she'd do is rip the chains out and open brutal wounds on where the chains were stuck into her._

_Fuck._

_It was only after the breathed slowly that she realized that she was hearing soft whispers and murmurs around her. In her head. Her hands shook slightly as she tried to ignore the whispers, unable to make out what they were saying. "Who are you?..." She seemed to whisper to herself, though obviously she was referencing the voices in her head._

_Suddenly, one whisper stuck out. Her own whisper._

_"Kill them."_

_A jolt of incredible power surged through Blake when the whisper told her what to do, making her body feel all fuzzy and warm and… good. It felt so good. But she immediately returned to her senses when she took a second to regain herself, realizing someone was whispering commands to her._

_"Who?..." Blake weakly responded, her voice shaky as she clutched her head slightly, trying to ignore the endless murmurs that filled her mind. "Where am I?..."_

_A wretchedly deep ambient noise suddenly filled the air as she heard soft footsteps in the hall that was connected to her room yet separated by that rusty door she was behind, making her skin crawl and shudder. She could feel herself losing it. She was sweating, her yellow eyes darted all over the room as she felt her head vibrate painfully while her vision eerily began pulsing and the walls seemed to contort around her, the chains seemingly pulling her back into the wall. Her hands were shaking violently and her breathing became erratic. She was barely able to breathe now._

_And her own voice whispered yet again to her, with a bit more… sharpness to it, if you will._

_"Kill them all."_

_Her body went into a spasm for another second as terribly overwhelming pleasure and power overcame her, her eyes fluttering before she shook off the spasm._

_And then she noticed the door slowly opening before her._

_There was… a black mist behind the door. Black mist that seemed to consume light and fill the entire hallway before it seemed to open the door. Blake couldn't help but start crying out of panic all of a sudden as the door was opened further and the mist slowly edged closer to her._

_Two tendrils suddenly shot out of the mist towards Blake and she let out an ear-piercing scream, before suddenly everything went to black._

* * *

_Blake awoke to find herself walking down a familiar hallway once more, her body walking on its own, yet she still felt in control. The hallway was that of Beacon._

_And she knew damn well where she was walking to._

_As she entered the dorm of her own team, her eyes darted to the figure that was laying on one of the beds motionlessly._

_Yang Xiao Long._

_Blake's body slowly took a few steps towards the laying Yang, whose eyes were pitch black, no pupils in them whatsoever. Yet Yang's head seemed to follow Blake's every move, creepily looking at her no matter where she went._

_When Blake reached Yang, Yang didn't respond. She wasn't breathing, she wasn't saying anything. She was just… staring. Her skin was so unnaturally pale._

_Yet Blake suddenly got self-conscious about her mouth for some reason. What was happening?_

_She covered her mouth with both of her hands, twitching wildly as the eerie Yang continued to stare…_

_She kept staring…_

_Blake could feel the whispers coming back to her very quickly and very loudly._

_Staring._

_She could feel the edges of her mouth painfully widen, as if someone was carving a smile on her face with a knife._

_Staring._

_She slowly uncovered her mouth, feeling her lips twitch aggressively as she felt overpowering anger and sadness suddenly overtake anything she was currently feeling right now._

_…_

_"STOP STARING AT ME!" Blake screamed out, clutching her head for a moment as the whispers kept on and Yang kept staring, before suddenly she shoved her hand into Yang's stomach, her eyes widening when she did so._

_Why did it feel so relieving?_

_She then pulled her arm out, revealing Yang's intestines in them as they were clutched harshly and pulled out of the blonde, red blood covering Blake's hand as she stared at the organs and then looked back at Yang._

_She was still staring._

_Blake became overwhelmed with rage, shoving her other hand into Yang's body and beginning to aggressively fling Yang's insides all over the dorm, the walls getting splattered with organs and blood as Blake kept going and going, losing all control of herself and screaming violently as she ravaged Yang and tore her apart, throwing every single muscle, bone and organ that Yang was made of around the dorm, all while crying and screams tried to escape Blake's mouth, her voice now becoming painful to the ears as she shredded her vocal chords to hell and beyond, unable to even scream anymore, instead letting out a raspy and painful growl, her throat hurting as if she had swallowed razors._

_And everything went to black again._

* * *

_Blake seemed to be stuck in a trance as the darkness surrounded her, letting her regain her composure and realize what the fuck she was doing just moments ago._

_This had to be a nightmare._

_"Please wake me up…" She softly cried out, curling into a ball as she floated in the grand darkness, feeling nothing but immense sadness._

_Afterwards, she watched a big room slowly form itself in front of her, her eyes blinking slowly to adjust to the new bright setting she was in. The room was huge. No doors to be found in it either._

_However, there was someone on their knees in the corner._

_Someone with… long, black hair seemed to be eating something in the corner. Gross sounds of bones and meat getting chewed and ripped apart made Blake cringe and shudder slightly, before she nervously walked towards the person._

_The person had her back turned to Blake, and Blake could barely see blood dripping in front of the person as the person ate and chewed on something, the gross sounds now making Blake silently gag behind the person for a second._

_When she inhaled deeply, her shaking hand slowly reached to tap the person's shoulder. This person seemed so familiar…_

_Right before Blake's hand touched the person's shoulder, the chewing stopped, and the person looked at the corner now, not chewing anymore._

_Blake's hand softly backed off as the person turned their head very slowly towards Blake._

_Blake's eyes widened and a gasp came from her as she found herself staring at her own self that ate in the corner. The other Blake still kept her hands in front of her, though not showing them to the real Blake as if she wanted to continue to eat whatever she was eating._

_This other Blake had such bloody lips though. Her mouth was covered in a deep red shade of blood, which made Blake recoil slightly as the other Blake kept silently and lifelessly staring at her._

_The other Blake then slowly began turning her body around, wanting to show what she was eating to the real Blake._

_Blake let out a loud gasp and barely held back throwing up as she saw what the kneeling Blake was eating._

_She was eating her own hands._

_Bloody stumps remained where the hands should've been, bone protruding out of the stump slightly and ripped flesh exposing itself, bleeding softly before Blake._

_Blake was, to put it simply, horrified at this image. Watching herself with eaten-off arms staring at her was mortifying. The other Blake didn't respond though._

_The other Blake simply swallowed what she had left in her mouth of her hands, and then spoke._

_"Behind you."_

_Blake quickly turned around, her own hands shaking as her body quickly turned around, watching carefully. Her eyes darted to every corner of the room except the one she was in, trying to notice something. There was nothing behind her._

_She could her soft footsteps approaching her from behind, knowing it was the other Blake she was just staring at._

_Why was she suddenly paralyzed with fear though?..._

_"I said…" The other Blake spoke, her voice changing._

_"Behind you."_

_The last thing Blake saw when she turned around was black eyes with red pupils staring back at her, barely an inch away from her own eyes as the other Blake had a wicked grin on her._

* * *

Blake sprang awake whilst breathing heavily, her eyes wide open and her body shaking slightly while sweat poured down her face and body. She looked around her, noticing she was back where she was supposed to be, looking at Yang, Ruby and Weiss while they slept. She was back at the hotel. Back with her team.

She let out a huge sigh of relief as she calmed down slightly, but she was still shaking. The dream terrified her. There was no way she could sleep right now.

"Blake?..."

Blake jumped in her bed and gasped, her eyes darting to Yang, noticing her look up from her sleeping position slightly, looking at Blake with tired eyes.

"What's wrong?..." Yang tiredly asked, slowly rubbing her eyes as she did so.

"N-nothing. I…" Blake gulped, sighing.

"I just had a really terrible dream…" She shook her head, her eyes softly looking at Yang while she stared.

"Blake, just let it go… he's dead…" Yang groaned as she laid back down, resting her head on her pillow and closing her eyes, assuming she had a dream about Adam.

"I know, I know… sorry, I just… need a bit of fresh air. I have to open the window." Blake breathed out, noticing how piping hot it was to be in this room. Or maybe that was just her.

"Don't keep it open for too long, I don't wanna be cold…" Yang yawned out, not really minding what Blake said, feeling herself softly drift away to sleep once more.

"I won't…" Blake slowly got up from the bed, opening the window lightly and letting the soft breeze wash over her with a relaxed sigh. This felt so relieving.

Even then, she still wouldn't be able to sleep. The dream briefly flashed in her mind and she couldn't get it out of her head. As much as she was ashamed to admit, she was scared of sleeping now. She looked out the window for a bit, noting the dark, empty streets and the quiet whisper of the night wind as it washed over her face and body.

Maybe she should go for a tiny walk to clear her head. No, walking away from the hotel would be kind of reckless, now, wouldn't it? Blake softly thought about it, before deciding to limit herself.

"_Let's go for a walk. But I shouldn't stray too far from the hotel. Maybe a few steps here and there, nothing grand._" Blake's thoughts whispered to her, and she nodded lightly.

She didn't have her weapon with her anymore, and who knows who could be roaming these streets in the middle of the night. At least if she's close to the hotel and someone spots her, she can easily get back into it through the window and conceal herself from whoever would intend on doing her any harm.

Alright, she had something to fall back to in case something bad happened. Good. She didn't need to stay out for too long. Maybe a minute or two will be enough to clear her mind.

She looked back at the sleeping team, before jumping out the window, masterfully landing on her socks and hissing slightly when she forgot she wasn't exactly wearing anything on her feet besides her socks, feeling the chilling concrete cool her feet. Good job, you absolute walnut.

Oh well, she didn't really mind it too much, if she were to be honest.

She slowly peeked out of the dark alley she was in, a step or two away from being clearly visible in the street. She took a deep breath, a small smile creeping up on her face as she felt much more relieved now, looking around in silence as well. The silence was so pleasing to her now.

She took a few steps in front of the hotel, idly walking in front of it and leaning on the exterior of it every now and then, thinking about the dream as she did so. So many questions, yet she could barely remember the dream clearly. It was… just so disturbing to think about.

She then looked idly up at the streetlight, hugging herself when she felt the cold air around her, watching the light flicker gently, her eyes entranced by such a thing.

As she closed her eyes for a moment, she heard something behind her, her faunus ears twitching for a second as she tried to hear how close the sound was. Her eyes shot open wide when she realized the noise was right behind her.

Before she could let out a gasp, she felt a hand grip her mouth and muffle it so that nothing could escape it, right as she tried to scream. The last thing she saw and felt before everything went black was her being lifted up by someone from behind her by her head alone, and then getting her head slammed hard down onto the concrete below, the hit so hard that it even just outright shut down her aura that was trying to protect her.

* * *

The sun's rays lit up team RWBY's dorm softly through the window as everyone slept quietly, save for Ruby, who felt a weird breeze wash over her body for a second, her eyes fluttering as she woke up. She sat down on the side of her bed, tiredly rubbing her eyes, before taking her hands away, letting her silver eyes adjust to the light that embraced the room through the window.

A window that was open for some reason.

Ruby didn't notice anything thought yet, her mind and body were still not fully awake, so she spent a good minute looking around the room, before blinking, noticing something was off. Her eyes darted to Blake's bed, only to find it empty, before she looked at the wide-open window, humming in thought.

Where did Blake go?

Ruby got up slowly, groaning quietly as she walked over to the window, looking outside whilst leaning to get a better view of the street the hotel was in. She eyed the numerous people that walked in front of the hotel, certain people looking at her back with a slightly confused stare. Why would a girl in pajamas be leaning out like that?

Regardless, Blake was nowhere to be found.

The crimson-haired girl remembered seeing Yang and Blake have a convo near the window yesterday, turning to Yang and shaking her to wake her up, though she made sure to not shake Yang too roughly.

"Sis…?"

Yang let out a gentle groan as she awoke, her eyes looking at Ruby's for a second in a tired manner, before her voice asked:

"What is it, Ruby?..." Yang groaned out, turning onto her side as the blonde wished to rest her eyes just a bit more. It was basically the '5-more-minutes' situation everyone has been in when rudely awakened by someone.

"Sis, where's Blake?"

Yang's eyes opened quizzically, confused by the question, before she sat up on her bed, looking at Ruby in a weird manner.

"Uhh, she's right…" Yang turned to look at Blake's bed, her eyes widening when Blake was nowhere to be found in her bed. Yang then swiftly turned to look at the open window, confused.

"She said she was just gonna open the window when she woke up…" Yang muttered to herself as she rapidly got up from the bed, walking towards the window and looking around, making Ruby worry slightly while her eyes darted back to the bed Blake was previously sleeping in.

"Blake?" Ruby yelled out periodically as she walked around the city alongside Yang, who had her arms crossed, looking into one of the alleyways as they passed by them. The blonde seemed to be deep in thought.

"Blaake?" Ruby shouted again as they walked, earning some confused stares from onlookers as Ruby and Yang walked by them, meanwhile Yang shot them a red-eyed glare back, knowing damn well that'll stop them from judging her lil' sister when she's yelling out someone's name out loudly.

"Ruby!" Jaune yelled out as he saw her, walking towards her as Nora and Ren followed, hesitant.

"Jaune! Any sign of Blake?" She worriedly asked, sadly getting a head shake from Jaune in response.

"Nope. No traces whatsoever. It's like she just up and left or something!" Nora answered loudly instead of Jaune, Yang's eyes slightly squinting as she looked down at the ground in thought, Blake's promise echoing in her head over and over again.

Did she lie to her again?

"I think we should just let her be for now. She needs a bit of time to herself." Yang coldly responded, looking at Nora with rather strict eyes.

"What? Yang, if something had been bugging Blake, she could've just-"

"There's a reason she doesn't want to talk to us about it, and I'd rather not dwell on it!" Yang snapped at Ruby, red eyes slightly glimmering as they looked at Ruby's silver ones.

"B-but…"

"Ruby! There's simply shit that people will not discuss at all with anyone, so don't try to constantly wallow into someone's business and think that just patting them on the back and being overly optimistic will fix _all_ of their problems! The world is not all sunshine and rainbows, you know that! So give Blake a bit of space, I'm sure she'll be back in a day or two!" Yang yelled at Ruby as her red eyes shined slightly, Yang's hands clenched into fists while Ruby just leaned back while Yang towered over her, her lip quivering and her eyes watering slowly.

As Yang slowly realized what she had just done, looking at Ruby with lavender eyes now, before noting the attention of many strangers that had stopped around the group to see what the yelling was about. She looked at team JNR, only to receive shocked stares from them as well.

She looked back at Ruby, silent and ashamed as their eyes locked for a good amount of seconds, before Ruby wiped one of her eyes with her hand and walked off abruptly, stifling a few sobs as she pushed through the crowd of people that had gathered around the group.

"Ruby, I'm…" Yang reached out to Ruby but it was too late, seeing as she had disappeared into the crowd, unable to be seen by either JNR or Yang.

"Right… uhm… let's… meet back at the hotel after we've searched the city…" Jaune awkwardly stated as Yang turned her head to look at him, the crowd slowly walking away from all of them.

"Oh… Okay…" Yang slowly nodded, looking at the ground in shame, hearing the footsteps of the three other students get farther and farther, leaving her alone.

She took a deep, very shaky breath as she looked around her, now feeling nothing but emptiness and remorse.

"Well done, Yang. Well. _Fucking_. Done." She was absolutely furious at herself, proceeding to retrace her steps back to the hotel where Jaune had promised that they'd all meet, thinking about what she had just done.

* * *

Blake drowsily opened her eyes after feeling the cold air surrounding her, feeling her arms and legs spread a bit by something. As she attempted to move, she realized she was chained tightly to a wall, gasping as she looked around, seeing a red sky outside of the nearby window as her eyes darted everywhere around the room.

Her ears slightly twitched as she heard footsteps approaching the room, feeling her panic start to rise as she desperately attempted to break free from the chains.

"Blake… Belladonna, was it?" Salem softly asked as she walked into the chamber in which Blake was chained in, meanwhile Blake's eyes widened as she let out a gasp as she realized who she was seeing.

"You're…"

"I see Ozpin has told you many things about me, dear." Salem shook her head, looking at Blake with a very subtle smirk.

"Perhaps too many things…" She added in, before sighing.

"So, you seem to be best at running away, from what I've heard." Salem teased as her hand gently brushed Blake's cheek, making Blake inch away from Salem's hand.

"_Don't_ touch me." Blake hissed, earning a very quiet giggle from Salem.

It was evident that Salem was enjoying this.

"Ah, if you say so, my dear." Salem obeyed, nodding lightly, before turning towards the hallway where she came from.

"Since I can't harm you because you've forbid me to do so, I'll just have someone special take good care of you." Salem sighed, before snapping her fingers.

Blake heard heavy footsteps again, getting nervous quickly as she realized this wasn't going to end well if she's trapped here.

"Say hello to your old lover, Blake." Salem smirked as Adam walked into the room, grimm as always while Blake's eyes widened and her brain shut off for a second when she saw him.

"…A-Adam?!" She tried desperately to get the chains off, but to no avail, as the demonic Adam slowly walked towards her, unsheathing Wilt from Blush, before tossing Blush away, meanwhile Wilt softly shined with a red glow surrounding the blade.

"Hello, Blake." Adam simply replied with a more 'ashy' voice, probably due to the mouthpiece he had on him.

"I'd rather not beat around the bush this time. I think it's my turn to cause some pain to you, now, don't you think?" He whispered, pointing the blade at Blake's forehead, rotating it to the side lightly as his grimm eyes met Blake's.

"I'll enjoy this so much more than you ever will. _Trust me_."

* * *

**That's chapter 3 for you. Just wanted to thank you all for being interested in this story in the first place, I really am glad to hear that you're all enjoying it. I'll see you all in chapter 4, have a wonderful rest of your day.**


	4. And Another Problem Arises

Blake was exhausted.

Blake was in so much pain.

Blake had her body covered in small, bleeding cuts.

Blake couldn't scream anymore; it was painful to do so.

Yet it just kept going…

Adam's sword dripped slowly with Blake's blood as he inspected it carefully, a wicked smirk hidden under his mouthpiece as he watched Blake struggle to stay conscious. He had given her the 'thousand cuts' treatment he always wanted to try. A simple, yet painful method of torture.

"Tchtchtch, don't sleep yet, Blake. There's no point in doing this if I can't see how you react." He lifted her chin slightly for her to look at him with the blunt side of his blade, his grimm, red eyes meeting her weak, yellow ones. She was shaking with pain; the many cuts she had all over her oozing with red blood as she cried in anguish.

"Please… please, just _kill_ me…" She cried out painfully, budging the chains that held her with the tiny amount of energy she had left.

"I'm afraid I can't do that, love." Adam shook his head, his eyes focusing on her face as he replied. He didn't leave any cuts there. Though he had a good idea of where to place one more cut to satisfy himself.

He took a step forward, preparing Wilt to make one more, lovely incision on her, meanwhile Blake's eyes let out more tears as she knew what was coming.

The sharp edge of the blade pressed itself between her lips, carving into the corners of her mouth as Blake let out an ear-piercing scream of pain when she felt it. Adam kept pressing the blade into her mouth, cutting into Blake's gums while listening to her scream and yell, the corners of her mouth getting slit more and more, and a permanent smile was getting carved onto her oh-so-beautiful face.

Blood rapidly filled Blake's carved and sliced mouth when Adam finally stopped applying pressure with the blade, before he suddenly cleaned Wilt with his own hand, carefully at that, before slicing off one of Blake's hands at the wrist, causing her to scream once more, even if she was kind of gurgling with blood in her mouth at this point. Without letting her rest, he sliced off the other hand with just as much precision, blood pouring from the stumps that he had given her as she cried in agony rather loudly, before the door behind Adam swung open, revealing a rather bothered Salem standing there.

"Adam, honey, I thought I told you to not try to kill her. I'd say it's enough." Salem, hissed out as Adam stepped away from Blake, looking at her with a disappointed stare.

"If you say so." Adam growled as he stared down at the floor, but decided to suck it up like a big boy and just let Salem have her way.

Blake, however kept sobbing harshly and spat out blood in front of her as her now-carved mouth was still bleeding profusely, causing Salem to smirk.

"My, my, I see you were _quite_ rough with this one." Salem sighed, before snapping her fingers.

The chains, which were made from grimm-like material, suddenly let Blake go, causing her to fall onto the floor hard, as she tried to get up but couldn't, mainly because she had no hands to support herself on now. All she had was a cut-up body, face, and two bloody stumps instead of hands.

"Mind carrying her along, Adam?" Salem glanced at Adam, and he nodded.

She turned around and began walking down a big stairwell, meanwhile Adam followed, dragging Blake along the ground with them, making her leave a massive blood trail as she was dragged, meanwhile she sort of had to comically withstand hitting her head on each step of the stairwell.

Still, she was silent, not really feeling anything as she was being dragged. She was just glad the pain was somewhat over.

"_I'm sorry…_" She silently whispered to herself, remembering her team and her friends as she was getting dragged.

As Salem, Adam and Blake arrived to the bottom of the stairwell, they were lead into a room with only one thing present in it.

The same pool filled with noxious black liquid that Adam was thrown into before.

"Well, honey, I'd assume you know what to do with her now, don't you?" Salem turned to Adam slowly, her subtle smirk growing as she spoke.

To that, Adam nodded silently, before glancing at the fucked up Blake he had dragged along with him, before he slowly approached the pool of black liquid.

"We'll be seeing each other soon, Blake. Very soon." Adam hissed at Blake, who looked at Adam's grimm eyes one last time before she was carelessly tossed into the black pool, closing her eyes as she felt the liquid finally consume her.

* * *

As Yang noticed that the group had already gathered in front of the hotel, and they seemed to be looking around, frantically too. She sped up her walking pace into a rapid one, curious to know what was wrong this time.

"Hey, Firecracker." Qrow looked at Yang with squinted eyes, making Yang take a deep breath, thinking Ruby has already told him about her hissy-fit she threw at her. Fuck.

"You seen Weiss anywhere? We've been trying to get 'er on her scroll but she isn't responding." Qrow added in, making Yang do a sigh of relief in her mind when she heard that, before Yang actually realized what Qrow said.

"What? Who was supposed to be with her?" Yang raised an eyebrow, already becoming slightly more distressed when she heard that another teammate went missing. Already? How the hell did it come to this?

"Well, she told us she'd be fine on her own, so we trusted her like the idiots that we are. Look how well that turned out." Qrow sighed at the end of that sentence, shaking his head while Yang clenched her hands into fists and was already becoming angry once more.

"Well, considering she's a Schnee…" Oscar suddenly spoke up, thinking, meanwhile the gang looked at him curiously. "I'd say we don't really have to look far to find her. We know that her family was looking for her as soon as she ran away." He added in, meanwhile Jaune nodded.

"Oscar's right. We have to-" Jaune was cut off when he suddenly heard many metallic footsteps around them.

As the gang looked around, all they saw was about 50 or so metallic Atlas Military soldiers pointing their guns at them, before the one and only James Ironwood approached them with a cold look in his face.

"You're under arrest for illegal entry into the city of Atlas. Do not resist." James simply stated, meanwhile Qrow's eyes were widened, before he suddenly got Harbinger out, prepared to go on the offence before suddenly Ruby pushed his hand that held the huge sword down and looked at him, shaking her head. She seemed almost… defeated. Though then she leaned in slowly to whisper in his ear.

"Don't worry, just tell them about how we have Ozpin, uncle Qrow." Was what she whispered into his ear before letting him go, looking at James while she stood next to him and raised her hands up slowly, looking down at the ground afterwards.

Qrow wasn't sure what to do, but he had to trust Ruby this time. Attacking them would just cause more havoc, and he already had enough shit on his plate knowing that they lost two members and that Salem was after them. He let out a deep sigh, before sheathing back his sword, raising his hands up afterwards as the metal soldiers approached them and disarmed them. He noticed one of them take the Relic from Ruby, barely managing to hold himself back from yelling at them to give it back. He just had to bite his tongue and wait, Ruby's plan will work, right?

…right?

* * *

Qrow slammed his fist on the metallic table while James was interrogating him across that said table.

"I'm not insane, I'm telling you that we have Ozpin with us, James!" He growled at the headmaster of Atlas Academy, his crimson eyes filled with fury.

"Qrow, if you're not willing to calm down, then I'm not willing to listen to what you have to say."

"Oh, for god's sake, just…" Qrow sighed heavily, incredibly frustrated.

Ooh, boy. How the hell do you explain that Ozpin is alive and that he was reincarnated as a boy named Oscar? That's something Ruby really didn't go over well.

"Look, get Oscar in here, I can prove it to you right now that we very much have Ozpin with us." Qrow tried his best to remain calm, though his angry stare at James seemed to imply that they didn't have time to deal with shit like this.

"Qrow, that's just ridiculo-"

"James. I do not have time for any of this, you know damn well that I have no reason to lie to you. What, you think I snuck into Atlas just so I can admire the city like some damn princess?" Qrow cut James off, crossing his arms.

"I might be drunk, but I'm not delusional. You know this."

James stared the caped man with suspicion, before snapping his fingers.

"Oscar will be here shortly."

And damn was James not lying. After about 10 seconds, Oscar was shoved into the room the two were sitting in, looking at them both with confusion in his eyes. "U-uh."

"Right. I'm giving you a minute to prove to me that that boy is supposed to be the headmaster of Beacon." James looked at Qrow, not believing what Qrow said earlier already. Might as well give the poor drunk bastard a chance, ey.

Qrow stood up from his chair, looking at James to make sure that it was okay with him, before walking towards Oscar, taking a deep breath.

"Oscar, really need you to listen to me carefully now." Qrow approached Oscar, trying his best to not intimidate the kid with how blunt he was.

Oscar was only able to give Qrow a small, shaky nod as he waited for Qrow to tell him what to do.

"Tell Ozpin that we need him right here, right now, or his little plan to kick his ex's ass is going to absolutely nowhere." Qrow spoke to Oscar carefully, his crimson eyes staring into Oscar's green ones with seriousness.

"I'll, uh, I'll try." Oscar nodded, trying his best to focus.

He closed his eyes, and took a deep breath, trying to speak with Ozpin inside of his mind.

"Ozpin?..."

"Ozpin, we need you right now."

No response.

"Ozpin, look. We're in Atlas right now. We lost Blake, we have no idea where she is. I think Weiss was captured by her parents, and now we're dealing with the Atlas Military. They're trying to get us arrested, and the only thing that can get us out of here is if you show yourself!"

Ozpin was nowhere to be heard.

"Ozpin, please! We need you right now, your plan is going to fail if-" Suddenly Oscar felt himself getting shook violently, opening his eyes to see Qrow with a furious look on his face.

Except Oscar couldn't hear him for some reason. Everything was muted as he really felt the danger of the situation they were in. His childhood would be wasted in Atlas. Weiss would be stuck with her abusive parents. Yang and Ruby would be behind bars as well, god knows just how crushed they are as well. Qrow would lose his job and his mind knowing that trusting Ozpin was the biggest mistake of his life.

Oscar could barely make out what Qrow was yelling at Ozpin about.

_"…I've…you for all of my goddamn life…whatever you told me to…some sort of dog…only hope left…"_

That was all Oscar could make out, before James pushed Qrow away from Oscar, and Oscar's eyes widened.

A minute had passed. Already?

Was this really… it?

Oscar suddenly felt his control over his own self get practically stolen from him, feeling himself only mentally present in his own body.

Qrow's eyes widened as he noticed a yellow glow shine over Oscar's eyes, pointing at the boy and shouting.

"That's Ozpin right there!"

"Qrow, for the last time-"

"General." Oscar's voice had taken on… a much calmer and collected tone, causing James to turn around and look at Oscar.

"If we do not act quickly, your city and academy will be in great danger. I do not wish for a second city to fall, so you must let us off so we can get the relic and depart from your city with haste." Ozpin spoke as he looked up at James, to which James squinted slightly down at what he saw was Oscar.

"We did what we had to do because there wasn't any other choice. I understand your suspicions, but we do not intend any harm, nor did we have any intent on being portrayed as criminals for illegal entry. I apologize." Ozpin slightly bowed before James, meanwhile Qrow, who was behind James, barely managed to stop himself from slapping the hardest facepalm the world's ever witnessed.

Really.

A fucking _apology_ is the best Ozpin could do?

It's over.

James isn't some fucking kindergarten schmuck who'll-

* * *

Qrow was still in blind awe as they left the police station they were brought to before, with Maria looking up at the man with a small, amused smile on her face.

"And you thought the Little Red's plan wouldn't work." She spoke to him as they walked.

"Y-yeah, yeah, whatever. We still gotta get the Ice Queen and the Kitty Cat, though." Qrow rolled his eyes, looking at the rest of the group.

"Well… we know where Weiss is, that's for certain…" Jaune sighed, Yang looking at him silently as she did so, her arms crossed and her lilac eyes thinking.

"Shouldn't be too difficult to find her family's home. You know rich snobs always gotta show off their cash money, especially with big houses and stuff." Yang cracked a small smile to the boy, meanwhile Ruby looked at Yang… well, smiling, still. Though… it was kind of an ashamed smile, if you look at it closely. Probably because what happened earlier when they were looking for Weiss.

"Well, let's just look around the city for a big, rich, snob-like white house! Her family's famous all over the world, they probably have their NAME written on their gate or something!" Nora exclaimed, not noticing the… well, small drama between the two sisters.

"Let's go, kiddos. If Yang's right, then the cat will be back soon. Probably has to get her mind off of… certain things, I'm sure of it." Qrow spoke, taking a swig from his flask as the group nodded to his words.

As they began searching once more, this time, as an entire group, Yang sighed deeply, yet silently as she trailed behind. Great. First you don't know where Blake is. Then Weiss pulls a Peach and gets practically kidnapped. Then you lash out at YOUR OWN SISTER, like some stupid caveman and now you gotta look for the princess that's been kidnapped, hope for the best about Blake, and sort things out with Ruby in a much calmer and sister-like way.

Ugh.

What's next, suddenly dealing with a revived Adam or something?

Just ugh.

**Hello, everyone. First off, I really have to apologize for how short the chapter is. I may or may not have experienced writer's block in the midst of this and had a really difficult time stringing things together in this chapter. There's probably a decrease in quality too somewhere in here, I'm sure of it.**

**Another thing is that school has begun once again, and I'm afternoon shift this month. Basically, I won't have the time to work on this except during weekends, and that's IF I don't jam again and get confused as to where the characters should go and what should happen in the chapter. I don't think I'll be able to update the story and work on the next chapter as much as I wish to because of the afternoon shift. I'll try my best, but I don't think I'll be able to upload another chapter this month. So, that's that.**

**Until next time, and once again, apologies if the chapter seems a bit half-assed and short or such. Love ya all, have a good one. See you soon.**

**P.S: I lowkey had no idea what James was like, even if we saw him in the show numerous times. I'm really sorry if I portrayed him incredibly out-of-character.**


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